Malt Nuts: Sherried Highland Park Single Cask Tasting

For the 9th Anniversary of the Malt Nuts, we gathered to pay homage to one of our collective favorite distilleries: Highland Park. We’re big fans of HP’s past, those old slope shoulders were majestic in their readily available beauty and remain highly sought-after bottles in the group and around the world.

Being painfully aware of the decline of the core expressions, but seeing how exceptional the Highland Park Light and Highland Park Dark were in our HP 20-25 yo mega tasting, we decided to turn our attention to the OB SIB CS HP releases. For those of you who don’t speak whiskey nerd, that’s Original Bottling (by the distiller) Single Barrel Cask Strength Highland Park.

To narrow the focus even more, we only included ex-Sherry barrels in an attempt to see how the distillery stacks now against where it was a mere 10 years ago when that sherried profile was its calling card.

We had 2 rounds with a pre and a bonus dram. The rounds, blinded as always, ended up breaking down like this.

European vs American oak 1st fill sherry (12-years-old)

Refill sherry (12-15-years-old)

Being big fans of Highland Park, this was far from our first HP tasting. If you’re looking for more to read during these trying times here’s a list of the Highland Park tastings the group has done since I’ve been a part of it. They’re listed chronological order.

Malt Nuts: Highland Park Tasting

Malt Nuts: Highland Park 20-25 Years Mega Tasting

Malt Nuts: ex-Bourbon Highland Park

Malt Nuts: Undisclosed Orkney Tasting

Like most nights we started with a Pre which, in this case and many cases, it was a revisit from a past tasting.

European vs American oak 1st fill sherry (12-years-old)

Nose: Caramel, malty, toffee, smoke and vanilla.Palate: Same as aroma but with more fruitiness and some leather.Finish: Long -> Smoke and cough syrupOverall: (2 / 5) Not tasty. Overly sweet and water brings out more sweetness and some acetone.

Nose: Pecan, toffee, Almond Rocca, smoke and oil.Palate: Smoke, Almond Rocca and some dark fruit and leather.Finish: Long -> Smoke, dark fruit syupr and leather.Overall: (3.5 / 5) Has a nice solid maltiness to it and it comes together well overall with a sweet and savory kind of pairing. Olde candy notes come out with water.

Nose: Sherry, smoke, dark fruit, leather, nuts, cocoa and ash.Palate: Sherry, nuts, smoke, sulfur, dark fruit, char, leather, ash and cocoa.Finish: Long -> Dark fruit, citrus, smoke and nuts.Overall: (4.5 / 5) BAM! I take it back, THIS is as classic as it gets today. This is the reason people fall in love with Highland Park.

Nose: Smoke, toffee, butterscotch, fruit, nuts and spice.Palate: Char, toffee dark fruit, orange pastry, saline and cough syrup.Finish: Long -> Smoke and fruity dark chocolateOverall: (3 / 5) Nice and even while also being all over the place flavor-wise. Water rings out some frosting notes. Decent.

It’s a little bittersweet writing about this while in the current quarantine. Due to what’s going on we had to cancel a tasting of 20+ yo Glen Grant which the group was absurdly excited for. I had just nominated a new member, my new friend Bryan, who attended our Peated Loch Lomand tasting (coming later this week).

I sourced a bottle of Loch Lomand for him and he spent the night getting to know this amazing group of whisky nerds. We ended the night chatting about what we were bringing for the Glen Grant tasting in two weeks and what I’d be serving for my annual St. Paddy’s dinner which he and his wife were coming to. None of which happened, it’s crazy how fast those plans, and the world, changed.

Though, if anything, I think this experience will help us enjoy these moments more by realizing just how fragile our society really is. These tastings and times together, once we can have them again, will hopefully hold even more meaning.

I’m sure the first one will be a bit awkward without the usual hugs and handshakes, but I think that will be temporary. As time drops its veil on our memory and a vaccine become readily available we’ll get back to the way things were. Which I’m looking forward to, but hope we don’t forget this time and we take just a second each time to appreciate the moment we’re in.